March 22nd, 1895 - Skegness seafront

It was a warm day in March when Benedict found himself on the Promenade in Skegness in the North of England. Seagulls called overhead and every so often there was the ding ding of muggles riding along in strange four-person peddled vehicles with questionable steering.

He had been excited about today, a day trip out with his best friend over the Easter break from school. Just He and Millie, and of course a couple of her family that he had become at least a little familiar with during their occasional meet-ups over the last year. Millie Potts walked beside him, Zinnia Gallagher and her adorable baby Emery were a few steps ahead and every time he heard little cooing noises from the older woman into her pram he couldn't help but grin. There was nothing more important than family to him and this was Millie's family, so he felt quite privileged, even if the looming chaperone did mean there was significantly less opportunity for hand-holding or perhaps another stolen kiss. It was a curious feeling being here, they felt like an island, the three of them, walking along with their wands hidden away pretending to be muggles for the day to enjoy the seaside. He was almost surprised when they had earlier entered a small dusty bookshop and every single one of the books sat firmly on the shelves as if they hadn't even realised that books could fly yet. Well, at least three tomes would now rehomed into the wizarding world.

He felt something, two hazel eyes staring at him and he realised he had been daydreaming for some time and had not actually spoken for a few minutes. He blushed a little and smiled kindly at her. ”I'm sorry, I was miles away just thinking how lovely it is out today, I think we got quite lucky considering how cold February was.” he chuckled, how grown up he was, musing about the weather as they promenaded together on the front just above the beach. He took his eyes again off of the pretty girl by his side and looked down past her to where a gentleman with a pipe was trying to get a heavy-set woman onto a rather disgruntled-looking donkey.

”We should have a little walk on the beach, I've got some coins for a donkey ride if you want one, perhaps Emery would like one too?” he elevated the last part of his sentence so that Zinnia could hear the offer, although he questioned just how well the pram might handle the sand.

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   Millie Potts

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The ocean breeze wafted through the locks of hair that Millie didn't have fully pinned up. It was Zinnia who was able to help Mum agree to let her go out this way, with cleverly-placed pins that held back more than might have otherwise passed inspection. Her cousin's watchful eyes on her back were the only pair that she had to worry about, the swarms of Muggles they passed might have stared or gawked without much notice from the young witch. It was freeing, somehow, that the only world around her was so different from her own, as if Millie had stepped into the pages of one of her novels, like a fantasy where nothing seemed quite real and yet she felt it all more acutely than at home.

Which meant that the dashing knight to her side held much of her attention today. To anyone who happened upon them, the pair were nothing but the best of friends. Classmates, fellow prefects, leaders of rival clubs between their two sexes. Benedict's cleverness matched against her thoughtfulness in the bookstore earlier, where curiosity turned into challenge as they each tried to outdo each other in book selections. Perhaps the boys' book club could learn to love the swirling skirts as the girls' could learn to love the Roman period of British history.

If only Hogwarts' parents could get past the notion of their children reading Muggle authors in the first place.

Benedict's smile could light up a room, and when he smiled at her it was that flustered, sheepishness that she'd found on boys when they were caught out of sorts. As ugly as it looked on a boy like Jimmy Fletcher or Maxwell Beck, Millie liked it on Benedict Hunter, for reasons that Anne would certainly scoff at. She wasn't here to share in Millie's amusement at Ben lost in thought, or to scoff at her for finding it such. Perhaps weather was not such an engaging subject to discuss, but she appreciated the boy's discretion in finding a safe subject for them in such public views.

"It almost seems too perfect," she remarked, as if such as thing were even possible. Millie felt emboldened to make the claim, even her cousin's most fastidious eye wouldn't bat at a comment such as that. And Zinnia was the safest choice for chaperone as well, trusted well-enough by the family again now with a daughter of her own, with Millie's own trust never truly wavering. Zin was her first best friend, and one she trusted with enough of a deaf ear to speak more her own mind. "As if, perhaps, I might blink and awaken in my own bed again, with this having all been a dream."

Her lungs filled with the ocean air, tasting as sweet as the freedom the young witch felt in the moment. The seaside town offered more than just a day's adventure, it was a reprieve of sorts, a stay on the injustice of being cooped up in the castle for months on end. Here, the sun warmed the southernly breeze, blowing across the same North Sea as near Hogwarts but somehow utterly different in its disposition. Feeling its kiss against her cheeks was no real substitute for how Millie felt when Benedict kissed her, sometimes repeatedly if they could find more than a moment together, but with his presence by her side it would make do in the moment.

"Do you suppose the water is as cold as the Black Lake?" It was more of a curiosity than a suggestion from her, Millie hadn't packed a trunk or planned to change clothes for their trip at all. They might only be a floo away from home, but to go there would be to break the spell. She might never get to live a fantasy again, there was no sense in escaping it now for something as silly as a swim. "I would love to see Emery ride a donkey!"

Millie drew up closer to Ben, so their sleeves were nearly touching. She hesitated, wishing to raise her hand up to place in his, or upon his arm. They could do that, she supposed, his arm guiding her as any gentleman might a lady. Her eyes scanned the promenade, searching for someone else doing the same, as if needing validation. She found herself tapping at his elbow anyway, making a true suggestion then, until his arm found the right position for her hand to nestle into the crook of it.

"Maybe we can come back when she's older, and have the whole thing photographed like the Muggle fashion." She giggled softly, then a little louder and more carefree. "I heard there's someone trying to charm photographs to keep them from being stuck in one place, like portraits. I wouldn't mind doing that someday, fiddling with charms to make something new and amazing."

Every step she took seemed new and amazing to the young witch, a whole life like that would never feel boring to her. Not that anything ever could when Millie was in the presence of Benedict Hunter.

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Benedict Hunter Zinnia Gallagher

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   Benedict Hunter

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She was right, it did feel a little too perfect, like it would be snatched away from them and they would be plunged back into the daily grind of school and their associated lives. It wasn't that he disliked school at all, far from it. It was just that certain aspects of his personality were outgrowing and he was feeling ready for freedom in fourteen months. He'd miss seeing Millie every day when that happened so he shouldn't wish it away.

"I don't know if it's as cold but I bet it's got fewer monsters in it." he laughed and then felt fingers on his elbow like they were tapping for an entrance. He moved his arm and was rewarded with Millie's sliding into the crook of his elbow and taking hold gently. It all felt so easy being able to just walk and publicly be a couple with no one gossiping and no one chastising them because they had found each other's affection. "I don't think we'll swim though, Mum would kill me if I got salt water on my clothes and I don't think anyone wants me running down the beach in my undergarments." he gave Millie an open-mouthed mock look of scandal.

They walked a little further soaking in the atmosphere, he got the impression from Millie that she wasn't keen on a donkey ride, and pushing the pram in the sand seemed far too difficult to be worth it. "I think you are right, in a few years that will be lovely." he could picture it right now, except in his head it was just him and Millie put together playing like a family, he would like that a lot. "I'm hoping to get my apparition licence next month, and then when I am seventeen I can visit places like this much more often." he looked forward to being seventeen and being able to legally cast magic outside of school. He would need to be careful though, apparating into a popular muggle area could be an easy way to get in trouble.

He thought about her comments on fiddling with charms and modifying them. "Do you think you would want a career in charms after school then or just wait to be snapped up by one of the wealthy lads at coming out?" he squeezed her arm subconsciously at this, only now realising that that was a possibility, he had no claim to Millie but the idea of some older more established man whisking her out of his life, probably forever made him feel quite fretful. He gave a slightly apologetic look to Millie as if she knew the selfish thoughts he had in his mind right now. She looked so lovely with the freedom blowing in her hair.

Another bike whirred past them with a ding drawing Ben out of his inner turmoil. "Sir, where did you hire that?" he asked after him. The other gentleman gestured up the Promenade to a spot near the base of the long pier where Ben could see more people riding up and down. Benedict thanked the man and gave a goofy smile thinking of the two teens sailing along like proper dandys.

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Millie Potts

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   Millie Potts

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Hearing Ben talk so comfortably of the future, and not just as some far-off fancy, bent a little of her reality away from the surreal. With her arm on his, strolling along the promenade as two young people, Millie thought for a moment how oddly proper it felt. They were not the only sharply-dressed pair taking in the sights today, after all, all of them following the marvelous dance of being seen in each other's company. Though not yet in her sixteenth year, the young witch felt positively seventeen already, boldly strolling where no portrait or classmate could whisper rumors behind her.

"You make it sound so easy," Millie remarked quietly, a thoughtful cadence inspecting her words as they emerged. "You have your parent's shop to tend, and I have my parents..." It hardly needed to be said aloud, not with her shadow trailing them from a respectful distance. At least Zin was not the nosy or judgemental type, thank Merlin for that. Of course it wasn't proper for them to be seen without one, but just once Millie would enjoy even a fleeting sense of freedom from thinking about what should not be done. "Perhaps when I am seventeen as well, it wouldn't be so unseemly to be going about alone."

If only she had a free hand to reach for her yearning necklace, but they were all taken up by clinging to her friend instead. The young witch let a sigh reach its links instead, and it didn't quite help settle the fluttering of her stomach. Ben was more than a friend, though she didn't quite have the right word for that yet, she didn't suppose mere friends kissed together in shadows and went gallavanting off to seaside towns to promenade in the open.

"Oh, if anyone is to be snapped up at Coming Out, it will be Miss DeCroix or Miss Grace." That much seemed obvious to her, and it seemed like a strange thing to need to explain to Benedict. He had attended one already, that seemed a certainty by how he described the dances with last spring's most notable ladies. By now they had to be well into a courtship, and they would certainly be reading about Miss Abedayo or Miss Parkinson's engagements any day now.

That was the future that Papa wanted for her, Millie knew. To attend her Coming Out, be courted, find a suitable match, all things right and properly. Only Papa didn't have to live at Hogwarts more than in his own home, or face his OWLs knowing that they could doom him just as easily as set him free. The young witch didn't think she could bear a year of not seeing Ben every day, in passing through the Great Hall if nothing else. It might be worse than the prospect of Finishing School at this point, but she could stomach an entire education devoted to making her the ideal woman just so long as it was with Ben.

Millie found her hand pressing into his arm a little tighter, pulling her closer alongside the sturdy boy who knew the way forward. He didn't have to think about OWLs or fatherly whims. If only her thoughts of a future could be as playful as his to speak of. Her head came to rest on his shoulder, letting him lead her as easily as he chattered along the seaside promenade.

It didn't matter how proper it looked when she was properly standing beside Ben.

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   Benedict Hunter, Greta Gillenwater

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He nodded when she replied that he made it seem so easy, he was an optimist, a gentleman ought to be, at least in public. No good came of moping about things that might never come to be, but her did have his thoughts on the matter and his own successes worried him. "A gentleman needs his successes to be allowed to court the right sort of ladies, that is what I am told, so I try to plan for that." he mused to himself with a smile. He had not even got those successes yet and somehow the right kind of lady was willing to have him by her side, but Millie wasn't looking for a husband who would provide, so he got a pass on that, what the future would say about the matter was anyone's guess.

"Nothing you would do could be unseemly, it's not in your character." he complimented to her with warmth.

He gave a murmur when she mentioned DeCroix and Grace being snapped up, from what he had heard the pretty French girl would be leaving soon anyway, and Grace, seemed like she could find a good match, she was a little peculiar by reputation but he couldn't find any reason to mark her down. Ben wouldn't go too far into talking about other girls that he knew little of though, it was impolite. He did have a little smirk though. "I hope Miss Moony finds someone to suit her too." He was unsure of Anne, her reaction to him and Millie was quite abrupt, but it came from a place of love so that was that.

His heart skipped a beat as her head came resting on his shoulder as if it was the most natural thing to do, they had shared closeness but today's public closeness was a declaration to the world of their affection for each other. At least to the part of the world who had no idea who they were and would not spread gossip about the school about them. Oh, and of course Millie's cousin, there would be no pretence around her any more, and falsehoods of mere friends would be impossible to maintain now they had been so affectionately walking. So Ben leaned in a little, not to place his lips to her head, but to briefly rest his cheek on her hair and make a noise with his mouth to kiss her by implication.

They walked in silence before Millie would feel the grip she had loosened and Benedict's attention was drawn to the row of pedal cycles waiting to be taken up the long pier out to see. "I want to do that." Neither Millie nor Zinnia protested the idea, although Zinnia and Emery would need to wait at this end of the pair as the cycle would not accommodate the baby who was just now waking up to feed. It was pleasing that Zinnia trusted them both, or at least she trusted that Millie would not associate with a boy of ill intent.

One side was for the man, he with the strength to cycle and show off to the woman who would sit on the other side and glide gracefully along under her man's effort. Benedict liked that, it spoke to the little knight inside him yearning to be chivalrous. He held Millie's hand to help her into the saddle before taking his seat and beginning to ride. The wheels made a wonderfully quaint noise on the wooden pier but soon they were off, they could enjoy the breeze, and the smell of the ocean, and quickly found themselves distanced from the shore

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Millie Potts

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   Millie Potts

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Even this far from their homes and Hogwarts, Ben still reminded her how much he cared. She had to smile at the mention of her best friend, thinking there had to be a match for such a cynical romantic as the Slytherin. At least Anne had settled into a pattern of casual disapproval by now, it was better than the dramatic fashion in which she'd made her displeasure known to Millie about her choices. Once or twice there was still an unease about it, a worry when she sat alone or received a letter from her parents, that easily vanished when Ben was near.

The little kiss above her head, head but not felt, sent a pulse of warmth through her core. Her throat made a sound, one that the young witch hoped was taken as reciprocation rather than amusement. Never would she make that mistake again. Millie admired Ben too much to let him be confused about her feelings, no matter how embroiled she might be about them herself. It was easier in his presence, with little else to consider but what to do with him next.

And he had, as always, a marvelous idea for them in mind. Millie willingly assented to trying out the Muggle contraption, and as bizarre as it seemed, all thoughts of how silly or improper they might look were left far behind when Ben was peddling with all his might next to her. They flew across the pier, and with the wind pulling hard at her hair pins, the young witch threw her head back in laughter. It might have been unbecoming but she didn't care.

With Ben beside her, steady and faithful, his prowess mightily on display, she wasn't thinking of much else. With one hand to steady herself in the seat, she took hold of Ben's thigh. She could feel it flexing under her hand, though what Millie wanted most was that direct connection to him. It was a way that words and wands couldn't manage, and the closest to a kiss that she could pay him in return.

"Do you think," she asked, shouting into the wind of their motion to be heard. Millie glanced up at Ben, who looked so different than when he was busy concentrating on a book. It almost made her laugh again, and she might after the burning question left her tongue. "if we go fast enough, we might take off like a Hippogriff?"

The glee reached her cheeks, parting in a grin that might have been enough for lift off alone. If only they were of-age, and not around Muggles. Millie would have charmed the contraption to fly, and hopefully control it well enough, just to see what Ben would do after that. Without the ability, even without magic, the ride made the young witch feel like she was in a fantasy all over again.

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   Benedict Hunter

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Benedict was overjoyed that Millie agreed to join him in the pedalled contraption and quickly they set off. The affection he felt from her made him feel quite special, from her little noises when he gave her untouched kisses, to the way her hand now rested on his thigh in a way usually reserved for ladies and their official courtiers. The going was a little tough and it was bumpy and Ben was sure he was going to appear much less dashing than the image he had in mind, but other gentlemen nodded and doffed their hats as they passed in the opposite direction. They thought he was a man, a proper one. That was something that swelled his pride even further.

"Oh my word, can you imagine the look on the faces of the muggles as we climb into the sky in this thing." The mischievous Gryffindor in him would have loved to enchant the cycle to do just that, but Millie would likely never forgive such an embarrassment, and he was, after all, one of the much more civilised of his house. "I have heard that the French have recently had some success with powered flight, if only they knew we have had brooms for centuries. I'd be outraged to find out" he laughed and rang the bell at an older couple that was doddering along in a path that would possibly have Benedict run them over. Luckily they heard him and they adjusted their path accordingly.

Benedict looked over his shoulder towards the now distant peer where their chaperone waited. She was now too far for the boy to see her and he wondered what she was up to before turning back to Millie. "We shall stop at the end of the pier. I heard a man suggest they were selling ice cream there and I have a purse of muggle change to spend." It would be an excuse to spend just a little longer alone too as he couldn't very well ride this machine with a cone in his hand. The cycle bumped over a wonky plank and it brought Ben back from daydreaming.

"Thank you for agreeing to today." he said warmly to Millie. He knew she wasn't the most extroverted kind and part of his was suprised when she agreed to ask her parents if today was acceptable.

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Millie Potts

  

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The way that Ben could read her sometimes, as if she was a book fallen open to a page revealing her thoughts, made the young witch loathe the metal cage of the contraption for a moment. Its twin seats were separated, with Ben above her nearly to shoulder level, so unlike their walk where she could lean into his side. But her disturbing thoughts flew past as quick as the wind, scattered behind them like the dust, the echoes of her laughter, and Ben's words.

Millie only realized the pier was coming to an end when she heard him say they were stopping, straining to catch his words over the wind pulling them away. She didn't dare try to answer, with the rough planks of wood under their wheels turning every sound into a drumming it would be pointless. She nodded instead, turning to him in time to catch the warm grin on his face. He glowed with a giddy aura that she felt matched by her own, and something of admiration warmed her to see them rolling along only under Ben's power.

"It was well worth agreeing to," the young witch returned, glancing ahead to spy the object of Ben's desire at the end of the pier. Suddenly she grew keenly aware of the dryness of her mouth, the soreness of a stomach having flipped and turned about so many times from their speedy transportation. It made her grip the edges of the seat for a moment, reminded of how little she enjoyed riding a broom. At least this contraption, for however lightweight she felt riding it, was stuck with its wheels on the reassuring ground beneath them. Wooden and planked, the pier's sturdy boardwalk was ground enough for her nonetheless.

It brought them to the end of the carnival pier in short time, for a moment Millie's head was still flying along at breakneck speed even with her body stopped. Ben had to help her out of the seat, and she had to wonder how Anne or Greta ever managed to dismount so easily after a Quidditch match. She didn't remember having so much trouble after flying lessons in their first year, simply that it hadn't been as much fun of a class as Charms or other, seated, classes where the young witch didn't need to risk life and limb for every hour of instruction.

"Merlin's pointy hat, that's a lot of flavors!" Millie blurted out, seeing the board on the ice cream shack for the first time. Through the crowded throng around it —though most were diminutive enough to peer over their heads— she could spy some of the most unusual flavors she had ever heard of. Nothing like what the young witch had expected either, nowhere was the likes of Cobwebs or Earwax, but instead tastes she had never considered in a cool treat before. "Suppose that pine-apple might actually come from a forest?"

Millie found that the most intriguing, besides the curiosities of Spanish Nut or Neapolitan. She wondered if she dared venture into White Wine, and a glance backwards told her that Zin was nowhere to be found. A brief worry sent her hand to the safety of her necklace, only murmuring a soft, "Perhaps we should get some for my cousin as well."

That might assuage any qualms the elder Potts might have at letting the two of them out of her sight.

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   Benedict Hunter

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Benedict wouldn't let it show but was quite relieved to make the end of the pier, cycling was just not an activity he had spent much time doing. The vehicle was fascinating and he marvelled at it, but what he wouldn't give for being able to whip out his wand and cast a propulsion spell.

Millie spotted the ice cream vendor and once they had gotten off their ride he walked over to the stand with her. "You know what, It didn't even cross my mind that they wouldn't have normal flavours here. Although a parmesan cheese ice cream I suppose might taste a little like a bad Bertie Botts." he ran his finger across the glass and felt the cold from the other side. The colours were myriad, although not as vibrant as the colours of similar deserts back home.

He noticed Millie glancing back down the pier and then nervously reaching for her necklace. He gave her a soft look, she would know he was thinking of her feelings and that if she felt out of place all she had to do was tell him and she would be back with her cousin immediately. "That's a good idea, do babies like ice cream too? Hmm.... I wonder how they keep it cold without..." They were right at the front so he couldn't exactly say, but he made a little wriggle of his fingers to indicate magic.

"What'll it be for the lovely couple?" a kindly old man who from the lightness of his hair and the leatheriness of his skin had seen far too much sunshine. He had a smile as warm as his wares were cold and Benedict smiled back. "Hmm... can I have... erm... white wine, please.?And you Mill?"

"Pineapple, please."

The gentleman reached down and scooped ice creams and placing them into cones for the young pair to enjoy. Realistically, Ben thought, unless they were to turn round immediately it would be better to order the ice cream for the others after they had finished theirs, or Millie would end up a frightful cream covered mess. If only Ben was a month older he might disappear into a dark corner and sneak a cold spell. The closer he got to 17 though the more acutely her felt the trace almost breathing down his neck waiting for him to decide "Oh its close enough".

He paid for the treats as the man handed them over and he turned to walk Millie to the edge of the pier where they could lean against the bars, eat ice cream, listen to the waves and fight against the wind that threatened so many ladies's hair.

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Millie Potts

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   Millie Potts

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She hummed a small giggle to herself, barely audible to Ben, at the allusion to magic. Millie could have almost forgotten herself in the day at the pier, that she was a witch with magic herself. A simple spell would keep ice cream cold in the heat of a Scottish summer, but she found herself with a craning neck to witness how a Muggle might do it. What the vendor scooped out was no runny mess, indeed, but firm and refreshingly cold. Her fingers tingled when she accepted it, curious by the mysterious allure of its taste and methods.

At first blush, the young witch realized that pine-apple truly did not have anything to do with pines. The taste was sharp like the scent of the trees, but that alone was where the similarities ended. After that, a bright fruitiness spread across her tongue without remorse, and her curiosity vanished under the care of ice cream flavors that Millie could never have fathomed a Muggle could create. "This is spectacular!"

The words came out half-coated by the melting, sweet flavors on her tongue, and Millie drew a hand up to her mouth to mind it. Her smile behind the hand left no mystery as to her feelings on the matter, not even her customary nerves could overpower the brisk adventure that was pineapple ice cream. She might have forgotten about anyone else in that moment if Ben hadn't been guiding her elbow, occupied almost entirely by holding the ice cream cone steady, to move their scenery slowly down to the edge of the pier.

"What an excellent suggestion, Mr. Hunter, thank you," she remarked, using his surname as if they were back in the throes of Hogwarts again. Millie meant it as an endearment, she could have called him anything here and who might have known? The boy had shown nothing but a gentlemanly demeanor from the moment they had arrived, and by now she did wish their venue had been far from Muggle eyes as well as wizarding. Curiosity plagued her eyes again, drawn to his features as the boy, the young man, as he enjoyed his own ice cream cone. What deadly mischief they might have gotten up to instead if their day had been held in a peaceful meadow instead, or far more unsupervised.

Millie didn't dare think any such things, lest other, far more untoward, thoughts come to mind.

"For all of it." Millie finished her thought, perhaps more as an addendum, thinking of Ben's persistent thoughtfulness to her, for this day and her reputation. The pleasantness of the ice cream coated her tongue again, a mirror of the pleasant thoughts spreading over her mind. He might have only been trying to impress her, seeking another moment for a stolen kiss someday, but if Ben's mannerisms were only an act then he was certainly dedicated to his role. Far more than she had cause to mind otherwise.

The breeze pulled at the pins in her hair, though the young witch had stopped paying much attention to it. She leaned out over the railing of the pier, just enough to let the first drips of her ice cream, melting faster than she could attend to, fall into the water below. Like the ice cream, Millie could just as easily melt into this moment, a perfect moment far from the cares and whims of school, their families, or even the watchful eyes of her cousin who still lagged behind catching up to them. Here it was just her, Ben, and the ocean.

Complete with ice cream. Which no other day, she decided now, should ever be without again.

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   Benedict Hunter

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